BOOK OF SHADOWS #1, from Valiant Entertainment on July 27th, 2022, continues the stellar Shadowman series with a team-up of world-ending proportions. Shadowman and Persephone track down supernatural monsters destroying entire towns when they cross paths with other Valiant heroes on the hunt for a disturbance in the Spirit World.
The Details
- Written by: Cullen Bunn
- Art by: Vicente Cifuentes
- Colors by: Nick Filardi
- Letters by: Dave Sharpe
- Cover art by: Rafael Albuquerque (cover A)
- Cover price: $3.99
- Release date: July 27, 2022
Is It Good?
BOOK OF SHADOWS #1 is a solid start to a Valiant crossover story that brings the assorted Voodoo and magic practitioners from across the Valiant universe to confront an ancient threat. This first issue gives readers plenty of monster-fighting action, good introductions to Valiant characters (old and new), and establishes a powerful threat that threatens the entire world.
Bunn is one of the best horror comic writers working today, so expectations were high going into this first issue. Those expectations were mostly met. Bunn is a master at efficient introductions and storytelling. Readers are dropped right into the action without missing a beat, and you get a very clear sense of who’s who, what’s what, and the stakes for our heroes. The pacing is excellent, the dialog feels natural, and the narration is just right.
Likewise, the art is also… solid. Cifuentes’s linework is very clean, Filardi’s colors are on-point, and Sharpe’s lettering is top-notch.
That said, there is a noticeable difference between the art in this issue and Jon Davis-Hunt’s style in the main Shadowman title. The style and quality are not the same, and frankly, not as good. Davis-Hunt’s style relies on little details and depth that gave Shadowman his own flavor and a smokiness that complemented the Voodoo subject matter. Here, the art feels like a standard, digital, house style that’s not technically bad in any way but lacks Davis-Hunt’s flavor. We try to avoid comparing artists because styles vary for different reasons, but in this case, the art lacks that certain something that made the main title such a hit.
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What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
Shadowman and Persephone arrive a little too late at a small Indiana town besieged by Hellhounds. The heroes save who they can and fight off the monsters, mostly through Persephone’s power to banish monsters to the Deadside.
When the battle ends, Punk Mambo and Doctor Mirage coincidentally arrive on the scene, guided by the Doctor’s sense that a supernatural disturbance is coming. Punk informs Shadowman that she enlisted the help of the Eternal Warrior to hunt down and dispatch the Hellhounds that escaped into the woods.
The Eternal Warrior catches up to the straggling Hellhounds and cuts them down. We conclude the issue with a new arrival, a familiar face (familiar to the Eternal Warrior), and talk of beheadings.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at preview images of the internal pages, or Click Here to jump right to the score.
Final Thoughts
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BOOK OF SHADOWS #1 is a solid beginning to a multi-hero crossover event when the world is threatened by a supernatural villain bent on controlling the world. Bunn’s writing is clean, efficient, organic, and imaginative. The art is very good but lacks the finesse that made the previous Shadowman series stand out.
Related Information
Why is New Orleans known for voodoo?
Voodoo originated in the African regions known today as Togo, Benin, and Nigeria. During the years in America when slavery was legal, large populations of slaves carried the Voodoo (originally Voodou) religion with them from Africa to the Gulf Coast regions of America, as well as the Caribbean islands. When slavery was abolished, former slaves remained in the Gulf Coast regions and maintained the observance of Voodoo rituals since the religion was first practiced in the United States.
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